A “Heavenly Fantasy” that ends up nailed to the ground. Saturday evening, a metal structure covering a float collapsed during a Christmas parade in Trouville-sur-Mer (Calvados), causing thirteen injuries. Update on what we know.
What happened?
Saturday evening, the Trouville residents met along the Touques, to admire the parade which launched the Christmas lights. For an hour, the floats prepared by the Planète Vapeur company were to crisscross the city for “a magical stroll where magic and light mingle, to amaze young and old”, according to the invitation issued by the tourist office. Before arriving at Place du Maréchal-Foch, between the casino and the pretty half-timbered houses which house shops at the end of the quays, to complete the spectacle, a tank pulling a metal structure in the shape of a bird collapsed on spectators, gathered by the hundreds on the esplanade freed from some of its cars.
The parade “was very good, it was magnificent,” a spectator, Vanessa, told BFMTV. And then suddenly, in the bend, the bird flipped and that caused the machine to tip over. It fell on passers-by who were looking on the side of the parking lot. We heard screams, it was horrible. It was sad. In those moments, it’s panic,” she recalls. “The tank went up a small slope, around the bend. Everyone was shocked as soon as the tank fell,” added another, Auregann.
That budget?
Calvados firefighters treated thirteen injured people, including a 2-year-old child and a 14-year-old girl, according to emergency services. Eleven injured people were in relative emergency, some for minor fractures, the other two were slightly more seriously injured, including one patient with an open fracture. It could be an artist present on the tank when it fell, according to a municipal official cited by France 3.
At no time was the life of the injured threatened. Nine people were examined in hospital, notably in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), Caen (Calvados) and Lisieux (Calvados).
Video13 injured after float falls during Christmas parade in Trouville
How to explain the accident?
The bird “fell on a bend. With the slope – the metal structure was perhaps not well stabilized – the tank fell on people who were watching the show,” said police captain Laurent, deputy head of the departmental night command.
The company in charge of the parade, Planète Vapeur, is a company specializing in street arts, which has extensive experience in these festive events. Founded in 2006 in Nice by an architect from a family of carnival-goers, it perfectly masters ambulatory shows. The Celestial Fantasy parade is organized around a vehicle which carries, at the end of a mobile crane, a long blue metal stilt walker. It is this bird which, it seems, collapsed, dragging the vehicle with its weight.
Under this bird, according to photos available on the company's website, and videos on its Instagram account, an acrobat moves in a suspended hoop.
However, as always, Planète Vapeur technicians had carried out the usual reconnaissance on the route taken by the procession, assured the town hall. An investigation was opened to determine “the circumstances” of the accident.
A psychological unit set up
Mayor Sylvie de Gaetano, who followed the walk, said she was “sorry for the victims”. “I express all my support and solidarity to them,” she wrote in a press release. This Sunday morning, with BFM, she still seemed overcome with emotion. “In action, the adrenaline, etc. comes through. And then the next morning, you realize even more,” she said, acknowledging that it was “a little complicated” for her.
The staff of the tourist office wanted to thank the emergency services, as well as “all the people present on the scene who were able to provide first aid and comfort to the injured as well as the nearby restaurants and hotels which welcomed the victims”.
A psychological support unit has been set up with the Samu to provide assistance, individually or in groups, to people morally affected by the accident.
